We ... suggest that you reconsider your participation in the NAMMCO (North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission) Conference, the English organisation Wildlife and Countryside Link writes in a letter to speakers at the conference on Marine Mammals and the Environment This attempt to disrupt the conference held in the Shetlands on April 20th and 21st was, however, unsuccessful.

It certainly did not have the intended effect of intimidating any of the conferences speakers to keep away from the event, says NAMMCO secretary Kate Sanderson. Contributions were made by experts from 12 different countries. The conference addressed marine pollution and its effects on marine mammals and the people of coastal communities.

Childish
NAMMCO is a regional organisation for the conservation, management and study of marine mammals. Its members are Greenland, Norway, Iceland and the Faeroe Islands. In the letter , the Wildlife and Countryside Link claims that NAMMCO is challenging the authority of the International Whaling Commission and should therefore be shunned. Even so, it was not welcomed by everybody in the Save-the-Whale camp. The letter is childish and disappointing, said Janus Hillgard of Greenpeace Denmark in a comment to the Greenland national radio station. Greenpeace is a member of the Wildlife and Countryside Link, an organisation which also embraces 10 British environmental and animal welfare organisations. When approached by the High North News, Hillgard was not prepared to elaborate on the background for his comment.

This crude attempt to sabotage a legitimate international forum has certainly not won the organisation any sympathy among the members of the scientific community who were on the receiving end of it, said Kate Sanderson. From the feedback I have had, she continued, It has been very effective in raising questions about the seriousness and credibility of the groups who signed their names to the letter.

A campaign letter from the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (a member organisation of the Wildlife and Countryside Link), urged people to protest against the meeting, We believe that NAMMCO is trying to use the Shetland community to hold a pro-whaling meeting on Scottish soil in order to create a sense of creeping competency from the UK government. They are desperate for foreign endorsement, it says. It asks for help in preventing the Shetlands from being used to justify further whaling activities in the North Atlantic.

Carefully Selected
Sanderson agrees that the Shetlands were carefully selected as the arena for the conference, but not for the reasons claimed by the WDCS. In her opening speech she pointed out that the Shetlands is a place with first hand experience of human impacts on the marine environment and a local economy dependent on its resources. Secretary of the Shetland Fisheries Organisation, John Goodlad, applauded NAMMCO in his presentation for organising the conference in Lerwick, For communities such as ours, the well-being of the marine environment is essential for the continuation of our island way of life.